A MiniGame that presents the player a sequence of buttons and challenges him to memorize it and repeat it. Usually this must be done multiple times, with each sequence adding one or more buttons. It may not involve button presses directly, but rather requires the player to memorize some combination of actions. For example, you may have to press a group of differently-colored switches in the order they light up or kill a group of mooks in the order they first appear.

This often involves a musical motif with the PlayerCharacter playing a musical instrument and the button presses each representing a musical note. In any case, this can be something of a MoonLogicPuzzle for people with poor short term memories. Thankfully, you can usually cheat using a pen and paper.

Note that this Mini Game isn't ''quite'' like the children's game Simon Says, as there is no trick of losing if an action isn't prefaced with some special denotation. Still, most people associate the game with repetition, so these mini games are often likened to Simon Says. They also bear a strong resemblance to the electronic game [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_(game) Simon]] from the early 80's, which was itself named after Simon Says.

Not to be confused with ActionCommands or PressXToNotDie.----!!Examples:

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[[folder:Video Games]]* ''VideoGame/{{Aquaria}}'' has a Simon Says MiniBoss.* The UrExample of this may be the 1974 {{Atari}} ''VideoGame/TouchMe'' arcade game, making this OlderThanTheNES.* This was the entire premise for ''Flagman'' for the Creator/{{Nintendo}} Game & Watch.* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', a [[HeartContainer Heart Piece]] was earned by playing a game of this with the Skull Kids in the Lost Woods, requiring you to memorize musical notes and play them back using the titular ocarina.** The frog choir's game (active after receiving their ''first'' Heart Piece) was basically this. On crack. You had to match up ''every'' note as it was played. Fortunately, the sequence was fixed.** Also used during the Goron Dance mini-game in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames Oracle of Ages]]''. You're given very little margin for error, and it must be completed multiple times. ''Oracle Of Seasons'' featured it too, but there was much more room for error.* In ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie'', used with the "Tiptup Choir" jigsaw piece in Bubblegloop Swamp, and again with a giant OminousPipeOrgan in Mad Monster Mansion.** Rare must love these, as they used it again in ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong64'', as one of Lanky Kong's golden bananas is earned this way in the Frantic Factory level, requiring him to GroundPound the multicolored notes on a piano.** For an even earlier example, there are the Banana Bird bonuses in ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry3DixieKongsDoubleTrouble''.* ''VideoGame/TheSimpsonsGame'' used this, requiring the player to play back the Simpson's theme in order to gain access to Matt Groening's mansion.* ''VideoGame/MegaManAndBass'' has these in Astro Man's level. A gun will fire at you if you make an error.* A quest in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' uses this.* There's a minigame in the first ''VideoGame/WarioWare'' where you do this, with the musical justification.* The MiniGame "Clefairy Says" in ''VideoGame/PokemonStadium'', pictured above.* ''VideoGame/{{Pitfall}}: The Mayan Adventure'' has a similar game involving pull-levers in some bonus levels.* The ''WesternAnimation/WallE'' computer game uses a simple challenge of this style to open some of the doors.* ''VideoGame/LightCrusader'' features some doors that only open after the player goes through a few rounds of "hit these things in the exact order they light up."* ''VideoGame/ParappaTheRapper'', ''VideoGame/SpaceChannel5'', and for that matter almost every other RhythmGame.** The Rhythm Heaven franchise, while not all of its games are these, quite a few are basically this (Which, by the way, does not make it any less fun). A few examples: Shoot-em-up, Moai Doo-wop, Drummer Duel, Love Lab to an extent, Working Dough, Rockers, and parts of Glee Club.* One of the forms of tower calibration in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2''.* ''VideoGame/EarthwormJim 2'''s underwater level has a Simon Says game at the exit. There are 4 pinball bumpers with ridiculous sound effects and you must repeat the sequence played. It starts at a one note sequence then gradually builds to 12 notes. The level exit appears when you finally fail, but the power up presented depends on how far you go before failing.* ''VideoGame/EternalSonata'' has a part that's sort of like this, but with some of the level between each sequence. The buttons are keys on a keyboard, and you play part of a song. [[spoiler:It's part of Chopin's ''Nocturne''.]]* In ''VideoGame/BraveFencerMusashi'', the boss battle against Topo is a dancing contest that's one of these. In addition to repeating the sequence, you have to maintain roughly the same tempo. Make a mistake and a row of fans blows you into an electric field.* In Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly, one mini-game involves Spyro watching a tiki band play their drums and then repeating the drum beat back to earn a dragonfly.* In the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'', this is how you hack into any piece of electronics that litters the world. The PC version replaces this with something that actually looks slightly sophisticated.* ''VideoGame/MetalArmsGlitchInTheSystem'' has one part where the eponymous Glitch must pretend to be a spy-bot during calibration tests. Various movement and rotation instructions are given, and three mistakes earn a ticket to the shredder. Sadly, going ballistic with a weapon isn't an option.* ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' has a plot-relevant mini-game that gives you [[spoiler:a perfect replica of the main character to replace him at the moment of his PlotlineDeath and undo it]]. Fortunately, during the one time it's plot-relevant, you can still continue if you fail...assuming you don't mind parting with a large sum of money.* ''VideoGame/{{Okami}}'' has the Blockhead encounters: Attack one to see a sequence of weak points appear, then dot over the weak points in the same order to actually defeat it. Many players didn't initially realize that the order matters, which can add to the frustration of trying to take down [[{{Sidequest}} Blockhead Grande]] for his [[LastLousyPoint Stray Bead]].* ''VideoGame/MarioParty'' will '''always''' have some variation on this...* ''VideoGame/AlienHominid'' had one miniboss that was like this. Hit the wrong color and you got zapped to death and had to repeat the process.* Multiple ''VideoGame/NancyDrew'' games include mini-games like this, but the best example is ''The Haunting of Castle Malloy'', which has a drum minigame that even ''looks'' like a Simon toy.* In an underwater section of ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga'', five torches were ignited in a certain order, and then extinguished. Mario had to relight the torches in the same order.* In ''VideoGame/StubbsTheZombie'', the showdown with the Chief of Police takes the form of this.* The dancing level of ''Disney/{{Pinocchio}}'' for Sega Genesis and Super NES.* The piano puzzle in ''VideoGame/TheSeventhGuest''. The tune turns out to be the game's main theme.* The ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'' [[VideoGame/HarryPotter game]] for the Game Boy Color had a DDR-style minigame with this sort of gameplay featuring Harry and Professor Flickwick, resulting in the amusing images of Harry doing things like shaking his tush at the screen or breakdancing on his head.* Gets you to a golden key in ''VideoGame/FableIII''.* Also a MoneyForNothing minigame in ''SphinxAndTheCursedMummy''.* One of the games in ''TheSecretIslandOfDrQuandary'', "Ape the Ape".* One of the minigames in ''VideoGame/EscapeFromTheMindmaster''.* The deadly "[[AnArmAndALeg manicure]]" scene in ''VideoGame/BrainDead13'' is probably this... sort of. And you can tell by the way Vivi's clumsy fingers point in the direction of her next strike of her butcher knife on the chopping block table after her previous, failed one, which tells you that you have to quickly move Lance's hand away at the ''opposite'' direction of the way she swings the knife to avoid getting his hand chopped off. For example, if her finger points ''right'' on her first failed attempt, his hand must move ''left'' on her next attempt. The next sequence follows: Her finger --> down, his hand --> up; her finger --> left, his hand --> right; etc. After her repeated failed attempts, she will tire and say, "Hmmm... this don't look very sharp," thus ending the "manicure".* How the Dragon Rushes work in ''VideoGame/DragonBallZBudokai 3''. If you press the same button as your opponent, the Rush ends early.* Earlier games in the ''DreamChronicles'' series contain these in some form, often based on music instruments.* The ''Franchise/SlyCooper'' series has a few instances. ** In ''VideoGame/SlyCooperAndTheThieviusRaccoonus'', the boss battle with Ms. Ruby plays like this. ** And in ''VideoGame/Sly2BandOfThieves'', the dancing segments play like this too.* Done a few times in VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam. The first time is merely a really simple puzzle with blocks in the Pi'illo Castle basement, but later certain bosses will telegraph their attacks like this, with them moving a bunch of laser sights in a certain order and then afterwards shooting in the directions indicated. ** Also, the Bye Bye Cannon attack in general, where you have to watch the order that Mario and Luigi are shot into the air and hit the right button when they land afterwards to do damage. Even more so for the Mad Skillathon mini game for this move, in which you've got to memorise increasingly long sequences of falling Marios and Luigis while the room for error gets less and less each time.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Electronic Toys]]* A closer {{Trope Namer|s}} than the children's game of Simon Says is the 1978 game ''Simon'' from Creator/MiltonBradley, which had colored buttons and musical sound effects.** A similar game called "Bop-It" was a strange-looking plastic gizmo that called out actions that the player had to perform on the object like pressing a button, pulling levers, or twisting the object. Its main mode was just doing the correct actions as they were called, though another mode was directly Simon.** "Brain Warp" also tasked the player with repeating commands one at a time, by rotating the toy so that the called color or number was oriented upward. One mode involved memorization and repetition: The first player chooses a first move, the second player repeats that move and adds a second move, the third player repeats the first two moves and adds a third, and so on.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]* Many of the "events" (read: stunts) on the {{Nickelodeon}} GameShow ''Series/ThinkFast'' required teams to take turns building a sequence in this manner, adding one each time. The first team to mess up lost. Examples included entering numbers on a giant push-button phone, throwing different colored paint balloons at one's partner, and patting the backs of three "gross uncles" to cause them to belch.[[/folder]]----